BLUES HOPES but pitch invasion mars victory
with the exception of being on the pitch which is not acceptable.
“But they are brilliant supporters, in general.”
Walsall boss Dean Keates claimed he had seen a bottle thrown at Saddlers skipper George Dobson and praised the reactions of both the referee and of his players.
Keates added: “The referee came over and explained the situation. If they come on the pitch again, he’s got to think about the players’ welfare and that’s fair enough.
“There’s mindless people sometimes that spoil it for everybody. It’s a difficult situation for the players too with fans running across the pitch, but it didn’t affect them. “We regrouped and, after that, I thought we dealt with them quite well.” Walsall led after 12 minutes as Zeli Ismail’s inventive backheel found top scorer Andy Cook six yards out and he turned on a sixpence to poke his eighth goal of the season past City keeper Lee Burge. They doubled the lead just before the half-hour mark as Jordan Thompson’s under-hit backpass was pounced on by Josh Ginnelly who prodded under the helpless Burge. It was Walsall’s turn to hand the Sky Blues a goal five minutes later as Jonson Clarke-Harris blocked Jon Guthrie’s weak clearance and raced clear to slot home.
When Thomas showed superb technique to fire in a 20-yard volley that squirmed under the hand of Walsall keeper Liam Roberts 11 minutes into the second half, a Coventry turnaround looked on.
However, the subsequent pitch invasion seemed to rally Walsall as Cook’s looping header hit the bar, before Devlin lashed Liam Kinsella’s through ball into the top corner to win it.
And while Robins defended Coventry’s supporters, he was not so kind on his players.
He moaned: “We have given them three goals. But even though we gave away three sloppy goals, we had three chances before they scored. It’s disappointing because you think back to the cup run we had last year which was brilliant and this year you want the same.
“Those first two goals have cost us badly.
“We have worked really hard to get back into the game and the equaliser should have been the platform for us to go on and win it.”
Walsall boss Keates, meanwhile, was delighted to taste victory after four defeats in five.
He added: “To go 2-0 up and then get reined back in to 2-2, they showed great character.
“To a man, I thought they were absolutely outstanding.”